Gravity
by nodumbbitch
Summary: Chrysalis, first seen in "Somewhere and Nowhere" has come to Stars Hollow, but frequent unwanted phone calls from her someone in her past make her dig deeper. On hold
1. part 1

**Gravity part one**

* * *

Chrysalis removed her homemade denim trench coat and looked sadly at the phone. The green light flashed on her answering machine and she trudged over to it, pressing a button. 

"Hey, Chrys. It's David. Looks like you're going to get the property after all. I'll see you next week for the move. You're going to love Star's Hollow, it's gorgeous there. Anyway, get back to me soon. And, uhm… sorry about you giving up the gallery. Maybe you'll feel better once you can open the store. And don't worry about Dodger; he's fine in Boston. Love you, bye."

She just stared at the machine, too tired and upset to glare at her boyfriend's peppy tone. Little did he know that Dodger was already back in New York, ready to talk her out of going to Star's Hollow.

She slumped over and fell on the floor. "Bloody hell. I'm too fucking tired to do this. Twenty years old and already dead."

She'd had the gallery for the past two years, it was her life. Now she was giving it up to start a record store in some small good-for-nothing town in the worst state possible.

The phone rang.

"Bloody hell. Perfect." She forced herself off the floor and picked it up.

"Eh?"

"Hi, Chrys." She straightened. "So, they got the gallery?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then. Sorry."

"How was Boston?"

"Crappy. You would've loved it."

"Dodger… don't."

"So, are you going to say good-bye this time?"

"You're the one who left for Boston without saying good-bye."

"You're the one who went to Germany without saying good-bye, and that was for more than two weeks."

"Whatever."

"Tired?"

"Been a long day."

"I'm going to miss the gallery."

"Aren't we all?"

"David clearly won't."

"Don't."

"Don't what? Give you advice?"

"You're my apprentice, you don't get to give me advice."

"Right."

"I'm leaving now. Bye." She hung up the phone. She counted to five in her head and rolled her eyes when the phone ringed again. She didn't pick it up, but instead, picked up her jacket and closed the door behind her.

"C'mon, Chrys. Don't be a bitch about all this. Pick up the phone; I know you're there. Just, please talk to me. Chrysalis, come back here. Jennifer! Pick up the phone. Fine then, don't. Just, please, say good-bye before you leave. I'll talk to you later."

Amanda's voice sang clearly in the background as Chrysalis sipped on her dry whiskey. She had decided to sneak into the show just to see evaluate what was happening without interruptions from David, Dodger, or her father. The three best men in her life.

She laughed at that thought. Her father abandoned her and then made her move to New York when she was eighteen. Now, everywhere she went, he was trying to tear her down. His bank was the one that had closed the gallery. David hated her painting, her music, her everything. He was only in it for the sex. And Dodger… whatever his real name was. He'd never bothered to tell her or she'd never bothered to remember. He was right, she never had said good-bye when she moved to Germany for three months. But she was also right. He had just hopped on a train with every painting he owned and jumped off in Boston without telling her.

'He's twenty-one, he can take care of himself.' It still hurt, what he'd done. He was her closest friend, which was kind of sad, considering they knew nothing about each other. She'd taught him everything she'd known about painting, and he'd learned. Now he was bigger than her in the New York underground. He wanted to expand his horizons, then fine. When he'd left, she'd given up painting and just worked in the gallery every waking hour.

As the set finished, Chrysalis clapped drunkenly. It seemed as though it was some sort of vicious circle. She would get close to someone, and they'd just tear away. It was why she'd come with her father to New York, wasn't it? No matter where she went in all of Ireland, her mother was still there.

Her mother deserved to die.

She was moving to Star's Hollow in two days. Away from her father, away from David, away from… well, away. She was sitting on her cot of a bed listening to Tom Waits's "Rain Dogs" trying to not think about how she was going to pull off owning a record store.

Someone knocked on the door. She sighed heavily and pulled herself up.

"What do you want?"

"Just let me in, Chrys." She opened the door, and there he was, standing in all his glory.

"What do you want?"

"We haven't talked about this."

"Talked about what, Dodger? Talked about how you just split, leaving me here with nothing to do, leaving me here with nothing? You just went. I sure hope Boston was the shit because I wished you'd never come back. Now, here you are. Back. Lovely. I adore it."

"Just listen to me for a second, Chrys."

"No, Dodger, I'm leaving, and you get no say in it."

"I had no say in it when you split before either. You just left, so don't take all your hatred out on me for just leaving too. And I went to Boston: four hours away! You went halfway across the world, for Chrissakes!"

"Dodger, just stop."

"You're kidding right?"

"Kidding about what?"

"You get to jump on me for leaving and the moment I jump on you, you tell me to shut up."

"I never said shut up."

"Fine, you know what? Go. Open your stupid record store in that godforsaken town. I don't care."

"I asked you to come with me. You know what I wanted."

"And you know what I didn't want."

"Dodger, I don't want you to think you should've come with me. You shouldn't have. We are simply friends, and barely even that. I never should've thought you'd come anywhere with me. I shouldn't have! I was stupid and careless and I really wish you'd just leave me alone. I ask you to come with me and the next day, you're gone. In Boston, which might as well have been Germany. Why? Because you're a runner. You ran away from Luke and Rory and when you went crawling back, you had nothing left. Then you found me and I gave you everything I could, Dodger. I gave up my life in Ireland for you."

"You didn't have a life in Ireland. You had a mother who tried to murder you."

"Don't… you… dare… I don't want you to come with me anymore, so why don't you just leave me alone the way you intended it. I mean, come on, it's not like you are Mr. Reliable." He turned away from her. "Dodger, just listen to me."

"Why don't you call me by my real name for once?"

"How about I don't? We have a strictly work-oriented relationship here and, what am I to do but try and not screw it up. So you'll call me Chrysalis and I'll call you Dodger." She walked away, into the little room set off to the side that was supposed to be a kitchen.

"Jennifer… wait."

"Don't call me that."

"What, your name?"

"I told you, strictly work-oriented."

"Fine, Chrysalis. You know how I feel about you. However, you know that, even in two years, I have not moved on. I have tried my damnedest, but I have not moved on. So what, you aren't leaving David anytime soon."

"I need David. He's paying for my place. Who cares if its prostitute like? I get my store, he gets his sex. Why am I telling you this?"

"Because, you love me."

"I do not love you, Dodger."

"Do you even know my real name?"

"No. I don't. So, quite clearly, I don't love you."

"Says the person who has read _Romeo and Juliet_ over three hundred times."

"I left you and David and New York when I went to Germany. I made something of myself when I didn't think about us."

"You came back, didn't you?"

"Yes. But that was because of the gallery, not because of you."

"You love me."

"Do you love me?"

"Jenn…"

"Dodge…"

"Chrys…"

"C'mon. Do you love me? You're so persistent in saying that I love you, how about your feelings towards me?"

"I don't. You know that."

"Do I? You're the one ragging on me about moving to Star's Hollow. You're the one who got scared when I asked you to come with me. I was crazy, I guess. You got scared and ran away, because you knew you wanted to, Dodger."

"I didn't want to."

"You did. Don't lie."

"I don't love you."

"You still love her?"

"You know that."

"Yeah. Sure. You'd better leave before David finds you here."

"Just tell me. Say it."

"NO! Dodger, just leave. I can't wait to get away from you."

"Fine." He caught her lips with his and turned, running out the door. She brought her fingertips up to where he had kissed her, shaking.

He didn't love her; it was painfully obvious in the way that he had kissed her. He wanted to love her, but he couldn't.

But she did love him.

The phone rang. She picked it up. "Top o th' mornin'?"

"Hey. It's me."

"Hi, David."

"Want help with boxes?"

"Very much."

"Keep a bottle of whiskey for me, will you?"

"Sure." She hung up and leaned against the wall. It was the last time she'd be able to do so after a call from David in the apartment. Star's Hollow was calling. It's be the first time she'd be able the new place hers.

The town was quaint. In the car, she could see the infamous Luke's Diner, and Miss Patty's dance studio. She wondered how the strangers of Star's Hollow would react to a young, green-haired, overly-pierced, blunt Irishwoman owning a record store in their perfect town.

"Here we are," David announced as they pulled up in front of a ratty-looking building that would soon be Chrysalis's very own. She stepped out of the car, donning her trench coat and a Dresden Dolls hoodie, where the bright, small-town sun beat down on her.

"It's perfect…" she whispered, looking at the building with longing. "It's mine…"

She stepped over the threshold of the house that would soon be turned into her store and home. A lock of hair fell from its strategically placed bobby pin and shone like an emerald in her eyes. She pushed it behind her ears as she ran her hand on the walls of the house.

"Yay." She smiled and fell on the floor, laughing.

* * *

I re-uploaded the story without the thing that got both me and some readers hotheaded. I'm really sorry. Anyway... yeah. The comments got deleted along with it. So, sorry. If you read the rant at the end of chapter two before I deleted it, I was having a crappy day and this girl yelling me about something I said in my story kinda topped it off. That comment never should've been in there in the first place, and I'm sorry about it if it pissed you off. Just please remember, it was a joke in a character's expense. Anyhoo, I'm re-uploading the entire story so far, so... again, I'm sorry. 


	2. part 2

**Gravity part two

* * *

**

"Rory! Rory! Okay, you're here, good. Now come with me," Lane said, pulling Rory along down the street.

"Lane, what's going on here?"

"I have to show you the most awesome thing to ever happen to this town."

"O…kay…"

"Trust me here, Rory. You will love this." Lane pulled Rory onto a street familiar to the one the Gilmore house resided on.

"Lane… it's a house. With a motorcycle…"

"And a sign. Go, look at the sign." Rory climbed up the front steps. The inner doors behind the outside iron netted doors were open and a plain, wooden sign was hanging on one. It was painted black, with metallic green lettering reading "The Under the Ground: the first actual Stars Hollow record store worth going to." Lane giggled behind Rory, and she looked at her friend, confused.

"A record store? In Stars Hollow?"

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

"Yeah. And I haven't even gone in yet."

"Oh, yes, about that…"

"What?"

"Well, there are some rules you should know before going in there. I had to learn these the hard way, after spending about 72 straight hours going through every record, CD, cassette, band DVD or video, and even lists of other stuff coming in. Firstly, you should know that the owner of the store is a bitter Irish 20-year-old named Chrysalis. She knows everything about every band worth knowing about and then some. She has green hair and a few piercings, so be not alarmed."

"Noted."

"Okay. Rules: 1, do not loiter. Make sure to busy yourself actually looking at CDs and don't spend too long on one. 2, do not ask her to turn off the music currently playing, for she will get defensive and have to kick you out. 3, do not ask about any band such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, even the Clash. This will get you a glare and no answer, unless it's a question about one of the bands themselves. Do not ask if she has any of their albums. 4, do not, for any reason, say the word 'Boston.' I don't know why, just don't do it. Even if it's in the title of a song, album, or band name, do not say it. 5, do not ask about Ireland, Germany, or New York, the three places she's lived. 6, avoid all eye contact with her whatsoever. Lastly, do not ever, under any circumstances, talk about any relationships you've had. It will get you no respect. At all. Okay, questions?"

"Yeah… uhm, is there much of a point going in here if there are so many rules?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay then. Enter we shall." Rory opened the sign-less door and Lane stepped inside, followed by Rory who closed the door quietly behind her.

She was struck by an array of brightly painted walls, rows and rows of CDs, records, cassettes and everything else musically-oriented aside from instruments, and the loud, screaming noise emanating from a record player behind the counter.

Standing in one of the rows was a leather-clad, six foot five man with a bright purple mohawk holding an Against Me! 7" in his hands, going over the artwork. He looked up at Lane and Rory, nodded, and went back to going through the 7"s.

The wall behind the counter was painted dark purple with red splattered all over it, as if to symbolise blood. The wall behind Rory and Lane was painted in lime green and sky blue horizontal stripes. One wall was completely covered by band posters and another was splashes of rainbow colours.

Perhaps the thing that struck Rory most was the girl behind the counter. She was about six feet tall, with dark green hair, underneath which, red roots clung to her skull. It had been pulled up into dissarry, held together by either lots of bobby pins or several cans of spray. She had a ring in her nostril with a chain going to her ear, and several rings, studs, and bars going through each. She had at least three studs surrounding her lips, and five in her eyebrow. She was wearing a torn up tank top over a black button-up with red skulls on the collar, and she was mouthing along with the screams coming from the record player. She flipped through the pages of a magazine called Razorcake, taking no notice to the large man a few feet from her, Lane, or Rory. Rory couldn't help but cringe, but Lane just stood there, smiling.

"What's that loud clashing noise?" Rory asked Lane quickly. Lane smiled and went over to the woman behind the counter, presumably Chrysalis.

"Hey, Chrys. Got anything new yet?" The woman looked up from her magazine, looked at Lane, and opened her mouth, revealing a tongue stud.

"Just got a few copies of _A is for Accident_ from Important this morning. If you're interested," she drawled in a slightly Americanised Irish accent. She pulled out a small box from behind the counter and handed a CD to Lane. "Might like it. It's a little bit rough around the edges, but that's because it's mostly live tracks." Rory stepped up next to Lane and looked at the CD in her hand.

"The Dresden Dolls?"

"Yeah, they're absolutely amazing. I bought their other CD here just the other day."

"She fell in love immediately," Chrysalis said, smiling. "Who are you?" She asked, sizing Rory up.

"This, Chrysalis, is Rory. She's the girl I told you about."

"And the stories never ended. Well, it's nice to meet you in the flesh, although I s'pose I already know all yer deepes' darkes' secrets, ey?" She extended her heavily-ringed hand and Rory shook it cautiously. "If you're nerved out by me metal extremities, don' worry. I hardly ever wear all this shite. It's all cause I had a couple visitors this mornin' who were expectin' to see me the way they'd been told I looked. Guess they got more 'in they wanted, ey?"

"What's playing?" Lane asked for Rory, who was still trying to figure it out herself.

"Guyana Punch Line. Part of me personal collection. Not many people who come in here like it too much, but I play it for hours."

"It's absolutely annoying," Lane said, laughing slightly. Chrysalis smiled.

"I'm gettin' sick of it anyway." She turned to the record player behind her and turned it off. "What do you girls wanna hear: World/Inferno or Lucero? 'cause, honestly, I could go for both."

"Not Lucero. Last time you made me listen to them made me gag. I mean, they're country, from crying out loud."

"Oh, honey, they're more than country. They're Lucero. They had Darby's Song which could make even the manliest macho man cry aloud. Oy, you," she said, directed at the punk in the corner, "World/Inferno or Lucero."

"They're both terrible."

"Says the man who spends hours looking through Against Me! 7"s that he could get a helluva lot cheaper from No Idea."

"Says the woman who gladly gets rid of her customers and their money," he retorted, walked up to the front desk, holding a disc and an LP under his arm. He stood next to Lane, and handed Chrysalis ten dollars for his merchandise. "World/Inferno."

"World/Inferno Friendship Society it is," Chrysalis said, taking the money and sticking it in her pocket before turning to the CD player next to the record player and slipping a disc in. Immediately, the four of them were overpowered by the rhythms of "Tattoos Fade."

"Come again soon, Link."

"Whatever," the black-clad fellow said mockingly, and walked out the front door.

"Oh, Rory, considering Lane's told me so much about you, I set aside a CD for you, waiting for her to drag you in here."

"Really?" Rory looked utterly confused, but Lane gestured for her to go behind the counter as Chrysalis dug through boxes. The area behind the counter was in complete disarray. There were boxes filled with CDs everywhere and stacks of the discs on shelves underneath the CD and record players.

Chrysalis came up and turned to Rory. "What the hell are you doin' behind my counter, girl?"

"Sorry…" Rory said, stepping back.

"I'm just jokin', jeez. Anyhoo, this is what I thought you'd like." Rory took the object from Chrysalis's hands and looked it over. "She's amazing."

"Regina Spektor?"

"Trust me on this, Gilmore. You'll adore her."

"I've heard only good things," Lane piped in.

"Anyways, you two feel free to search around as much as you like. I've got to sneak upstairs for a second." Chrysalis stepped out from behind the counter and opened a door that had been concealed by posters. She slipped in and out of sight, and Rory looked after her, completely confused and yet in awe.

Just then, the door opened, and in walked Lorelai. "I thought I'd find you two here. All Lane's been able to talk about is this place." She walked over to the two girls standing at the counter. "Completely in awe, I'm assuming?" Rory nodded. To Lane, Lorelai said, "Keep her away from any breakables."

"Will do."

Suddenly, from above, even over the World/Inferno Friendship Society, the three Stars Hollow girls could hear shouting in some strange form of English that they couldn't understand. It was Chrysalis, stomping around and yelling at either a phone or someone else who was upstairs. A man's voice responded, louder than hers, but still indecipherable. The shouts got louder as someone stomped down the stairs and swung open the hidden door.

"And, of course, there are customers here."

"There are always customers here, David. It's a goddamn store, for Chrissakes!"

"Well now, isn't that just great. Lane, it's good to see you again." The man, dressed in a white Grateful Dead tee shirt and paint-stained jeans, pulled a denim jacket over his shoulders and stormed out the front doors, letting them bang closed. Chrysalis ran after him quickly.

"David, get the hell back here this instant. David! Don't you dare get in that car." The three girls, still standing at the counter, could hear a car pulling away from the back of the house. "David!" Chrysalis yelled after him, but he was obviously gone.

She came back into the store quietly, obviously not in a good mood. "So, you girls going to buy something or just get in my way?" she growled as she walked past them.

"Thanks for the music…" Rory said quickly as the three of them backed out of the store.

Closing the door behind her, Rory could hear the loud screaming sounds of Guyana Punch Line resume their place in the store.

"Wow…" Lane said quietly as she walked ahead of the mother and daughter.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Lorelai asked absent-mindedly.

Inside the store, Chrysalis put her head in her hands and focused on the Razorcake sitting in front of her, biting back tears.

"Dodger…" she whispered mournfully.


	3. part 3

**Gravity part three**

* * *

The phone rang its annoying jingle. 'I have to change the ring tone someday,' Chrysalis thought as picked it up. "Hullo?'

"Chrys."

"Who is this?"

"Chrysalis, whatever you do, do not hang up."

"Dodger."

"Oh, don't sound so excited to hear my voice."

"I'm beyond excited to hear your voice," she deadpanned.

"Did you meet her?"

"What!"

"Did you meet her?"

"Dodge, I am not your messenger girl. If you're so eager to know how she is, why don't you come down here yourself."

"Fine then. Guess where I am."

"No."

"You are no fun, you know that."

"I don't fucking care, man. It's not my deal. I'm here, you're not, and I don't know why you're not, but you're not and that was your fucking choice, so don't pin any information you want from the godforsaken town on me, I'm not Miss Patty."

"Guess where I am."

"I don't want to fucking guess where you are. I don't even fucking want to talk to you, goddammit!"

"Okay, let's stop with the curse words."

"Fuck you."

"Okay, one last time, guess where I am."

"Okay, one last time, I don't give a shite. Get over it."

"Dublin."

Complete silence. Chrysalis felt as though she was going to faint. "You're… where?"

"Dublin. The airport, actually, I'm going back to Boston tomorrow."

"Why the fuck are you in Dublin."

"I wanted to see it."

"See what?"

"Your place."

"No… no… NO. You don't get to walk out of my life and then attempt to crawl back in by doing something completely idiotic."

"House the hell is going to Dublin and seeing where you grew up completely idiotic."

"Have fun in Boston." She hung up, distraught. It wasn't fair. He was the one who didn't love her; he was the one who had said no to coming with her. And there he was, in her motherland, trying to figure out her life before New York.

The phone rang again, but she let the answering machine take it.

"Bite me, Chrys. I know you, and I know you're standing right next to the phone, staring at it longingly, because you know you hate it when I talk and you can't talk back. Fine, be a bitch, be immature."

"You're the immature one," she whispered to the machine.

"Okay, whatever, get on with your life. Go fuck David so that he'll stay another week and then get over yourself. God." He hung up and the machine beeped.

She balled her hand into a fist and turned and punched the wall without thinking. "Damn you!" She looked at her bleeding hand, stuck in the wall. "Damn you, Dodger. Damn you to FUCKING HELL!" she screamed, tears running down her face. He was right. David was going to leave, and probably take the store with him. She'd only been open about a month and he was already distant and out with whores. However, she'd never seen a whore in all of Connecticut, so she wasn't sure how he was out with whores, but she knew he was out with whores.

She shook her head and slowly pulled her hand out of the wall, dripping blood on the wall. She winced and clutched her wrist while searching for a first aide kit.

She stumbled into the bathroom across from her bedroom, where she had just had the conversation with Dodger. She looked at herself in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep; her hair was disarrayed and graying due to the dying her hair the opposite colour of her natural colour. Holes in her skin seemed deeper than they really were, especially since she had no piercings in at all. Her face was gaunt and pale.

She looked down at her hand and stared at what would be some serious scarring. She turned the water on warmly and stuck her injured hand underneath it. As she scrubbed away the blood and torn skin, she couldn't help but feel lost. Stars Hollow was no place for her. She stuck out like a sore thumb, quite obviously about to be left alone with no place to stay, noone to run to. She sighed heavily and wiped a tear off her cheek with her good hand.

She bandaged up her fist and sat down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She moved her head to look out the window at the evening glow. Here she could see stars. Stars Hollow, of course there were stars. She couldn't remember ever seeing stars in New York or Dublin or even Berlin.

She pushed herself off the bed and picked up her denim jacket off a chair. The front door clanged loudly as she let it slam shut behind her, walking out into the night. The town was beautiful at night and she couldn't help but feel somewhat at ease.

Once she was where she had wanted to go, she had calmed down completely. The bell on the door dinged as she opened the door to the diner. It was almost empty and Luke stood behind the counter, wiping it off, as he always seemed to be doing.

She took a seat at the counter and Luke poured her a cup of coffee. "What happened there?" he asked, directing his thoughts towards her hand.

"Had a call. Pissed me off. Hole in wall," she said matter-of-factly and Luke raised his eyebrows.

"Who from?"

"Just… an old friend."

"Oh. Well, you going to order?"

"Coffee's good, thanks."

Just then, Rory came in through the door with a blonde guy holding her hand, and they were laughing. Chrysalis looked back at them and nodded in recognition to Rory.

"Logan, you should meet Chrysalis."

"Okay then…" he said, obviously slightly confused.

"Okay, Chrys, this is Logan and Logan, this is Chrys."

He protruded his hand but Chrysalis just gave him a withering stare. He pulled his hand back and smiled. Rory took a seat next to Chrysalis and Logan took a seat next to Rory. Luke came out and gave the couple coffee.

"What happened to your hand?"

"Punched a hole in the wall."

"David?"

"No."

"Okay… sorry," Rory said, wishing she hadn't asked as she looked at the glowering Chrysalis. The three of them sat in silence sipping their coffee. The phone rang, making Chrysalis jump out of her thoughts. Rory chuckled and Chrysalis smiled slightly in her own expense.

Luke picked up the clanging phone, "Yeah? Wait, slow down. Who is this? Uh huh. Jess, what the hell are you doing in Ireland?" At this, both Rory and Chrysalis tensed visibly. Logan looked at both girls quizzically. "Jess, what the hell are you doing in Ireland?" Luke repeated into the phone. "Boston? Huh. No, I can't help you out. I'm kind of busy right now." Jess said something into the phone, quite obviously, because Luke paled greatly, 'What? Fine, go, go to Boston, have much fun." He hung up. Logan rubbed his hand on Rory's back and Chrysalis curled as much into a ball as she could.

* * *

"David!"

"Shut the hell up, Jenn. I'm sick of listening to you whine."

"David, come back here." She followed him out the door, letting it slam behind her. She was wearing only a camisole and panties, and was immediately rushed by the cold fall air. He slammed the car door closed and Chrysalis pounded on it.

David sat in the car staring at the house. He turned to her and said, "Keep it. It's a shitpile anyway. Just pay for it yourself."

"David, don't go."

"Stop pretending that you're so damn dependant on me. I'm going back to New York."

"You **whore**."

"Fuck you, Jenn. I'm leaving, and I hope I never have to look upon your sorry excuse for a life ever again." The engine revved and he backed out of the driveway, Chrysalis staring sadly back at him, wind blowing her hair in all directions. A glistening mote of a tear rolled down her reddening cheek as she watched his car pull drive as fast as possible down the road.

She walked hauntedly back up the steps of the house and sat there, defeated. She held her head in her hands and openly sobbed.


	4. part 4

**Gravity part four**

Jess sat alone in his apartment, taking a drag on a cigarette. He hadn't smoked in two or three years. It soothed him but at the same time, he could feel coughs wracking his body and he felt like crap. He had left Jennifer, but he had still gone to her home city, a couple thousand miles.

He was blasting "Bank of Boston Beauty Queen" while smoking and reading Howl for about the fifty-thousandth time while sitting on a crappy bed in a bland Bostonian apartment. The phone sat beside him. For the past few days, he had considered calling her.

"It's getting dangerous Amanda…" he sang along with the CD as he turned the page. A knock came on the door. He sighed, dropped his cigarette into the dish beside him and dog-eared the page in his book.

* * *

"Hello?" Chrysalis knew someone was on the other end of the phone… she could hear whoever it was breathing. The past few weeks she hadn't felt like she was capable of getting up and getting dressed, but she needed to or she'd loose the store. "Hello?" she repeated, annoyed.

Whoever was on the other end hung up and Chrysalis sighed. The front door opened and in walked Luke.

"I need to talk to you."

"What?"

"I need to talk to you," he repeated, pissed off. The two shoppers attempted to hide their interested looks, and were obviously eavesdropping. Chrysalis rolled her eyes and pulled him behind the counter, turning up the speakers so that the other two people in the store wouldn't hear.

"What's going on?"

"I know that he called you before he went back to Boston."

"Wow? So?"

"What the hell did you say to him?"

"I'm assuming we're talking about Dodger here."

"Dodger? I'm talking about Jess."

"Who the hell is Jess?"

"Look, I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same person here, Chrys. Just, you know, different names. Anyhey, what did you say to him?"

"I told him to stay out of my affairs."

"Do you know what the hell happened to him?"

"No."

"He's staying out of your affairs then?"

"And I his."

"Fine. Listen. His roommate, I think he called himself Magico or something, said he shoved a bottle of pills down his throat one night and was in the hospital for two days."

"That's amazing Luke. I don't care." It was a bluff. She cared.

"I was just staying with him in Boston for the past week and he's been mumbling crazy things, mostly about a girl named Jennifer and Rory and you."

Under her breath she said, "Way to be redundant," but Luke did not hear her.

"He took up smoking again and he's really not in amazing shape, Chrys. Seriously, you need to talk to him 'cause my staying there did no good whatsoever."

"Luke, get this through your soddin' brain – I don't care about Jess or Dodger or whatever it is he's calling himself these days. I get it, you're his uncle, you have to care. It's your obligation, not mine. Now get the fuck outta my store." Luke huffed and left. One of the two people purchasing goods came up to the counter and avoided eye contact with me. "Heard it didn't ye?" She nodded. "I'm sure that you are overly confused." Again she nodded.

She left the store, and the other patron, who bought nothing, soon followed. Chrysalis was alone in the store, with Crass blasting in her ears. She looked over at the phone under the counter. She bent over to pick it up and dial, but it rang as soon as she had moved, causing her to jump.

She didn't pick it up. She knew who it was.

"Jennifer, darling, it's me. I'm sitting here in my office thinking, 'I wonder where my daughter went. She just disappeared.' Then, I remembered, I kicked you out of the city, essentially. No job, no home, nowhere to go. Except you found somewhere to go. I know I can't touch you in Stars Hollow, but be prepared. I will make life a living hell for you. The other day, somebody asked me…" Jennifer unplugged the phone before he could continue his story. To some it would seem impossible to have parents who truly hated you. To Chrysalis, it was a reality that she lived with every day.

She fought the urge to kick the phone as hard as possible and bit her hand hard instead. Blood drew from her cut where she had bit and a drop landed on the floor. Chrysalis didn't care.

She didn't seem to care about much these days.

Maybe, if she tried, she could not care about Dodger… Maybe, if she tried, she could not care about David leaving her… Maybe if she tried, she could not care about her father wanting to get her out of the country.

He had succeeded twice, after all.

* * *

_Chrysalis sat on the edge of her bed, her head in her hands. She was high and drunk and various other things. But here, she wasn't Chrysalis, she wasn't Jennifer, she wasn't Magdie. Here, she was nobody. Nobody knew her name, nobody cared about her art, and the only person who seemed to notice her was the landlord of the apartment complex. And she didn't understand him. He knew very little English and she knew very little German._

_It seemed like she was alone in this alien country without a friend. She knew nothing about the culture and spent all her weeks pay within a night at the bars. It was a catastrophe. She was a catastrophe. Everything was a catastrophe._

_She fell back on the bed, clutching a bottle of beer in some of her long, graceful fingers. Three of them were broken, bruised, and bloodied. Her other hand was bandaged up to her elbow. What she had wrapped it with was a makeshift bandage – an old ripped up teeshirt that smelled like smoke and wine._

_Her bed had no covers so she was cold at night. The teeshirt she had torn up to use as a bandage, or what was left of it, was tossed on the floor, and she lay there in only a bra and panties._

_This was not the world she belonged in. It was the world that had sucked her in. She couldn't remember why she had come to Germany in the first place – she could barely even remember her own name. It had taken her six years to forget her name, actually. She had meant to forget her own name. Then she had met him._

_He was dark, repulsive to her completely, but he was real. He was the first real person she had met in all of New York. He had shown up in her gallery about a month after she had moved in and opened it. He introduced himself as Dodger._

_She had asked why he called himself Dodger. He said something about a girl. He asked to know everything she knew. She had smiled. She had an apprentice. Unfortunately, she didn't know he'd steal everything she had worked for._

_He stole her title, he stole her gallery, and he stole her life. And he wanted more. All about a girl that wasn't her, she knew, but she wanted to be that girl. He had dug his own grave and buried himself in missing this girl. Chrysalis didn't know who that girl was, but she wanted to kill her for not being able to forgive poor Dodger._

_He had done the last thing. He had told her father what she was doing. He had found her father and told him what was happening in her life and she could not go through with ever seeing either of them ever again._

_The moment her father showed up in the gallery, she had lost it. She left her friend and ex-partner Alyce to the gallery and turned and ran. She ran from her father, her mother, her homecountry. She ran from her friends, her life, her Dodger, her art._

_She ran away to the best place she could think of. The place her father would never find her. Germany. And she had buried herself deeper than Dodger had._

_She needed help. She knew it. When you have ripped up your only shirt for a bandage and you go to sleep on a bed without covers and you drink yourself half to death, you need help. But she couldn't realize that._

_She stared up at the ceiling and brought the bottle to her lips. She was waiting for something to take her away – drunkenness, euphoria, denial, death. Anything. Just so that she wouldn't have to go home to New York._

_Alyce had died. Dodger was taking care of the gallery for her. More for Chrysalis than for Alyce, but that was what his story was. He knew she'd come back someday, he just didn't know when._

_Chrysalis stared blankly at the snapped fingers of her right hand. She thought about how she wouldn't be able to work. With her non-broken hand, she stroked several bruises on her thighs and winced when she touched her broken ribs. She could feel blood pounding in her black eye and the pain between her legs._

_She was pregnant. But she didn't know.

* * *

_

Luke sat in his apartment, drinking a beer silently. Jess had called him up two weeks prior and had said that he was in Ireland and was going to Boston. Next thing he knew, Jess was in the hospital from a suicide attempt, presumably because of Chrysalis, or Jennifer, whoever she was, or Rory.

Luke stared at the empty bed on the other side of the apartment. He had no clue why he had kept it. It was Jess's. Maybe he had expected Jess to come home at some point. Except now, Boston was his home. It was also Chris's home, he thought bitterly.

He had remembered something he'd seen in Jess's apartment. He hadn't said anything, it still boggled his mind completely.

A bag of whitish-yellow powder under Jess's pillow. He knew what it was, unfortunately. It wasn't crack or heroine, like he had thought at first. It was meth.

Jess was a junkie and alone with a possibly worse junkie in a strange town, going insane over these three girls and Luke could not do anything about it.


	5. part 5

**Gravity part five**

Rory sat on her bed, taking in her surroundings. She had been asleep in her bed at school, Logan with her, and suddenly she had woken up, a deep feeling of sorrow clouding her judgment. Something bad was happening to someone she cared about, but she couldn't figure out what.

Logan stirred beside her and she looked over at him. He seemed so perfect. But she had to leave him. She had to leave Yale. She had to go somewhere without telling anyone, and she had to do it now.

Something was eating away inside her and she didn't know what it was.

* * *

Luke looked a picture in his hands sadly. He had no clue where he'd taken the picture, but it was of Jess as a baby. He remembered he'd taken a picture, he couldn't remember where, when, or why. He just remembered it. 

He felt like he had lost Jess, in a way. He knew Jess would be in trouble on his own in New York again, but Boston was completely different. He didn't know if Jess had ever been to Boston before, so he wasn't sure what Jess knew about the place. All he knew was that Jess was alone and addicted to meth and he couldn't do anything about it.

That's when tears welled in his eyes. Luke never cried. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried. It may have been Rory's high school graduation. He felt like he had lost Jess, and Jess wasn't even dead. He was an addict and alone in a strange city, with nothing but paint fumes and drugs to keep him company.

He knew something was desperately wrong, but how could he help?

* * *

Chrysalis fell back on her bed as Melora's voice slowly but surely took a spot inside her head. She put the bottle up to her lips and drank slowly. It was almost midnight in Stars Hollow, and she was alone, drying to drink herself to sleep while blasting Rasputina as loud as she could without getting sued. 

Everything had gone wrong. She never should've come to America in the first place. She hated it here. Then again, she hated it everywhere else she had been.

Her father had fucked everything up for her. She was supposed to do well and do what she wanted, but her father shot her down. How could a father have so much contempt for his daughter? How could they have such enmity for each other? Thoughts spun around in Chrysalis's head when she decided to call someone.

* * *

The streets were dark and slippery as Rory sped on home. Except she wasn't going home. She was going somewhere that wasn't home. 

She was going to see Chrysalis.

* * *

Lorelai woke with a start. Something was happening, something bad, and something to Rory. She could feel it. Mother's intuition, woman's intuition, whatever it was, she knew. She jumped out of bed and grabbed her jacket, about to swing open the door and drive down to Yale when the phone rang. 

"Hello?"

"Miss Gilmore?"

"This is she."

"Sorry to wake you, but there's been an accident."

* * *

_She wanted to hold this baby, this perfect child in her arms, but she knew she couldn't. She was barely even nineteen for Chrissakes. She couldn't take care of a baby in a strange country while being a drug addict and a drunk and various other things that she didn't want to think about._

_She'd always wanted to prove that she'd be a better mother than her own had been. But there was no way she could. She'd never be able to.

* * *

_

"Luke! Luke, please open up!"

Luke came rushing down the stairs and saw a distressed, tear-stained-cheeked Lorelai banging on the front door of the diner.

"Lorelai, what happened?"

"Rory… she's in the hospital. She was coming home and she crashed and she's in the hospital in a coma."

"What?"

"I can't… I can't go. I can't drive. I can't think. Luke, Rory could've died. Rory could still die." Luke held her close and kissed the top of her head as Lorelai cried desperately.

"C'mon. I'll take you."

* * *

The three of them sat in the waiting room, waiting for word of Rory. Logan held his head in his hands, Lorelai cried on Luke's shoulder, and Luke felt like he was going to melt away. They could've lost someone that they'd all loved dearly. 

But she was all right. She was already awake. It had been two days, and the three of them had barely even left.

And the coffee sucked.

* * *

Chrysalis had heard from Lane what happened to Rory. She felt terrible. She wasn't sure why, but she had the feeling that it was all her fault. 

The phone rang while Chrys was lost in her thoughts. "Hello?" she said blankly into it.

"Is she all right?"

"Yes, Dodger, she's all right. I think she woke up."

"Good. I haven't heard anything more from Luke."

"Well, she should be okay. It's good that you care about her so much that you decide to call me instead of showing up in the hospital for her."

"I don't do hospitals."

"You did what, two weeks ago?"

"Luke?"

"Yeah, Luke. Dodger, what the hell were you thinking?"

"I wasn't."

"Exactly."

"It's a hell of a lot more complicated than that, Chrys."

"I know. But I wish you wouldn't blame me for your stupid suicide attempt."

"Again, it's more complicated than you know." He sounded dazed and far away.

"Are you high?"

"No," he was lying. Chrysalis could tell.

"I swear to god, Dodger, if you lie to me again, I'm marchin' straight up there and getting you off whatever shit it is that you're on. So tell me."

"I'm not getting into this now. Just, when you see her, tell her something."

"Whatever." Chrysalis hung up and went back to her work.

* * *

_She huddled in the corner of her room, again, only in a bra and panties. She touched her stomach lightly. Pregnant? It wasn't possible. Her stomach was badly bruised and underneath it, there was life teeming._

_She couldn't take care of a baby. It just wasn't possible. She couldn't._

_

* * *

_

An extremely jumpy chapter, not too long. But, the plot thickens.


End file.
